Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Today I started getting my next tutorial ready for the Flamingo Scraps blog. In the end, my simple tutorial became an entire lesson in Tim Holtz distress inks. I hope to have it done later this week, but until then....here is the layout I came up with.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I know, bad blogger. But, as promised I am back today with lots to share.

Life has been getting pretty crazy around here. State mandated standardized testing is rapidly approaching, and with us now enrolled in a charter school we must participate. And of course, the charter school is making us do test prep. ugggggh. This was one of the reasons I didn't put the children in school in the first place. Dang those silly colleges for being so competitive. I swear, some days I think I will just graduate the children and let them do a few years at JC.

Cabana Swim season is rapidly approaching and with it, all the loveliness that goes with being the president of the team. Walk in Registration, Swim Suits, and the every popular.....Mama Drama! lol So far so good, but it is keeping me busy.

We have been having lots of fun stuff keeping us busy as well. On Sunday we went up to San Francisco to my niece's first birthday party. She is such a cutie.....

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Recently I started playing with a fun new chipboard technique. It is really simple, and gives the chipboard a lot of depth.

I don't know about you, but having been in the craft mindset for a number of years, the diversity of supplies is often overwhelming. I have so many bits and pieces left over from all types of crafts. Here I put my old puff paints to work.

This is a simple technique that involves only a few items. The chipboard, puff paint, UTEE and a heat gun.

Begin by painting a thick layer of puff paint onto the chipboard. I find it best to spread the puff paint with a brush rather than the applicator tip as using the tip tends to clog the bottle.

After completely covering the chipboard with paint, sprinkle on your UTEE. And now.....wait! and wait, and wait. I usually do this first so as to give the paint plenty of time to dry. You want the paint to be dry when you go to heat set the embossing powder.

After heat setting, you are ready to go. Such a pretty, textured feel to the chipboard.

I used the same technique here

and here

Now, if I can just figure out what to do with hundreds of pony beads. lol

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Things have been a little crazy lately. Lots going on. Swim, ballet, school, and cabana season rapidly upon us. Eeeeek! Well, in my ever present quest to make everyday as good as it can be, I stumbled upon a recipe for cinnamon rolls on the Pioneer Woman's blog. recipe They looked so good, and although I knew my children would not like the frosting, the rolls themselves looked delicious. What is a girl to do? Well, get her husband to make them. hee hee

And here they are.....don't they look beautiful!

here they are all frosted and tasty

And yes, I know that is a lot of frosting. The children simply couldn't wait to dig in. How could you not? Well, I will tell you.....As soon as I pulled these beautifully golden rolls out of the pan, they were totally unbaked. Seems that Phil missed the last line on the page where it said to cut them 3/4 to 1 inch thick. He cut them closer to 3. So, although the tops were beautiful....the inside was mush. Needless to say the children were greatly dissapointed. And boy did I have a mess to clean up.

Since then, Phil has gotten quite good at making the rolls. The children now want them everyday! Phil is not happy as they take quite a bit of time to prepare. But, let me tell you....they are well worth it!

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the frosting. The first batch we made...the one oozing with sugary goodness...that was 1/2 of the recipe of frosting. It was supposed to frost 16 rolls. Since Phil had used 1/2 the dough to make 8 rolls.........

Using a banner kit from Maya Road, I cut the back side of some Pink Paislee papers into the triangle shape. I added some mint green cardstock to the back and then cut with my scalloped scissors, bits of a border sticker from Prima topped the base of my flag.

Then on to the embellishing. Lovely Prima blooms and some fun page pebbles filled the flag. I used the Deborah chipboard and some glass glitter for the sentiment.

And finally, beautiful Maya Road stick pins and chandelier beads. A bit of Diamond Stickles and I was ready to piece it all together.

I added a couple of my favorite photos of my dh and I together, mounted on the same mint green cardstock, strung it all together with some lace and voila.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

I just have to mention how much fun I have been having with all the new goodies I got at Flamingo Scraps last week. These products are just so gorgeous. I am going to be sad when I run out. Of course, new things are coming soon, keep your eye out. I will give you a little hint; PP, WP. Don't tell the boss I told you. hee hee

I found some beautiful German glass glitter the other day and couldn't wait to try it out. The Maya Road butterflies that Lisa Pace has made over on the Maya Road DT blog are gorgeous, so I thought I would give them a try myself. I really liked the way they came out, and they were perfect with the Prima papers. A little help from a pagemaps sketch and......

I used more of the Raspberry Tea paper, and stamped my cardstock with an acrylic stamp with some Iridescent Pearl Maya Mist. Some pretty Prima flowers and a Say it in Pearls and Roses, some Maya Road chipboard butterflies, Deborah mini font and a few of the floral stick pins. And I was just about done. I Love the new Prima packaging, perfect for journaling later.

Don't forget, there is still time to enter in this weeks contest over at Flamingo Scraps. You can find more informationhere. The person who guesses the most products that were used correctly will win a fabulous prize from Flamingo Scraps.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Yep, I love flowers. I love flowers in my house, I love flowers in my garden, and I love flowers on my paper crafting projects. I have been using and collecting flowers since those first bottles of Prima's Got Flowers hit the shelves at my local scrapbook store.

The flowers have changed a lot since those first bottles of flat flowers came out. But they still make them. And you can find them in the store as e-line flowers. These are great fun, and can be used in so many different ways.

For this project, I decided I needed a small, more dimensional flower. I had some flowers that were about the right size, but didn't really have the depth I was looking for. So, I thought of some tutorials I have seen lately. Lots of people making roses from 5 petal flowers. Well, I have tons of 5 petal flowers all lined up on my shelf.

Here are the things I used; pink got flowers, glue, scissors and some yellow stickles (also in the store).

It only took 2 flowers to create this new flower. All I did was cut one of the petals off one of the flowers.

I then glued the open edges back together. This created more of a bowl shape to my flower.

You can really see the dimension now.

I then took the small petal I had cut earlier and glued its edges together as well.

I glued the three petal flower to the uncut flower.

and then added the single petal.

Finally I dropped in some stickles.

After making a handful of these lovely little roses

I made this.....

I loved the extra added dimension these flowers added to my floral spray. I used a Cerise Fluttervine, some Bittles, and an orange Medici, all from Prima, as well. I snuck in a bit of the Prima packaging as a photo mat and placed it all on a paper from the Paradise City line.